(The Center Square) – Accounting contractors working for St. John the Baptist Parish were grossly overpaid for their work and were later found to be misrepresenting themselves, the Louisiana state auditor’s office says.
An audit performed by the Louisiana Legislative Auditors reviewed the parish clerk of court financial documents for the period of July 1, 2015, to May 31, 2024.
They found that the parish Clerk of Court’s Office paid two vendors $285,700 to provide accounting services from January 2017 to October 2023.
Troy Williams was to perform all such services, first as an employee of the first vendor, then later as the owner of the second vendor.
The contract with the first vendor identified Williams as a certified public accountant. In addition, Williams represented himself as a CPA to clerk’s office employees.
However, the state boards of accountancy in Louisiana has no record of Williams being a licensed or certificated CPA.
Using the title of CPA without holding a valid active certificate is a violation of state laws.
For their services, the clerk’s office agreed to pay Global Profit Strategies, the company Williams worked for, $85 per hour, plus travel and out of pocket expenses.
The clerks later signed a contract with Bilal’s Tax and Accounting Service, the company Williams owned, and the next seven audits were not completed timely, the audit says.
During the nearly 82-month period Williams provided accounting services to the office, the agency’s required annual audit was between five and 35 months past due.
According to the auditors, Williams often either did not complete the work the clerk’s office paid him to do, or did not complete it timely.
The clerk, Eliana DeFrancesch, may have also violated state law by allowing seven consecutive late audits of the clerk’s office accounting records without reporting it.
The October 2023 accounting records show the most recent bank reconciliation for the salary fund was dated May 31, 2021.
The late audits made it harder for the parish officials to notice they were continuing to pay Williams without verifying the work was performed as agreed.